I was building around a socket 939 Athlon dual core 4400. Thought this would be best for gaming with the large L2 cache. Now, I have almost all components and cannot find this CPU anymore. Would I be better off with a dual core opteron with the large L2 cache or an Athlon? Cost is a consideration, but I just don't know and any help would be appreciated!

Well the great thing about this is theres some perfect parts for you out there now for cheap, but hopefully you have a good overclocking motherboard, and you need to buy a really good heat sink to dissipate the heat.

The Opteron 165 @ 1.8 GHZ x 2 or the 170 @ 2.0 GHZ x 2 are fantastic overclockers and can be picked up at new egg cheap. Ive seen the 165 be overclocked to 2.7 ghz, and the 170 overclocked to 2.9 ghz. They are fantastic for overclocking because server processors are tested more rigerously and are of higher quality standards.

Id go opteron with a 939 motherboard.

165 for $157 cheap
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103588

170 for $190 dollars, slightly more overclocking, and easier to reach it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103586

EBAY my friend. eBay. I found a couple 4400+'s (Toldeo core S939) for under $300.

New and used.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-AMD-ATHLON [...] dZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-AMD-Athlon [...] dZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATHLON-64- [...] dZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATHLON-64- [...] dZViewItem

Don't know if this is the right place for this or not, but I have never built a system, yet alone overclocked anything. I have an Abit KN-8 SLI motherboard and don't have the first clue if it is good for overclocking or not? Is there a good place for overclocking info, for the CPU, RAM, motherboard, graphic card, etc?? Thanks!!

Pick up a cheap S939 Opteron and youre set

A couple weeks ago I replaced my Athlon 64 3200+ with an Opteron 175 (Dual core, 2.2 ghz, 1mb cache x 2). I love it.

I got one of the cheap 165's from Newegg, it does 2.7 with stock voltage. It's now at 2.8GHz. You have to have a motherboard that will go over a 300 HTT.

If your not overclocking it is a slow processor.

I agree across the board. Opteron all the way. I absolutely love my Opty 175. Opterons are the cream of the crop as they are server processors, and undergo a way more stressfull testing phase.

If you plan to overclcok, than get an Opteron 170/175, else try to find X2 with 512kB of L2. For example 4200+/4600+ would be nice.

I'm now part of the opty camp too. Recently picked up an Opteron 180 to replace my 4000+. Noticed upgrade optiions for the 939 disappearing fast so I decided to buy what i could get. The Opteron is basically the same as the Althon 64 X2. But with some tighter (better) specs. But basically they are the same so pick up what you can get for the $.